Question

What was the moment that changed your spending habits and caused you to start budgeting?  

Answer 1

Having to pay college tuition for our 2 kids. Luckily our oldest is a senior and youngest is a freshman, so we will suffer only 1 year. We had to stop spending foolishly and using our credit cards.  

Comments

Kind of a "I'm a rotten person" story here thinking of paying for college for one's kids. I have a niece who is very problematic and has caused so much trouble within our family. Her daughter played soccer all through junior high and high school and got a full-ride soccer scholarship for college. BUT when she started college, she decided she didn't want to play soccer any more, so her parents ended up paying for her college education. and she went through getting her masters. I'm sorry, but I got such a giggle over their best laid plans to educate her for free then ending up having to pay for it all. I guess there IS karma that comes around to bite you in the behind! I know. I'm rotten.  

Answer 2

A divorce and not receiving the child support.  

Answer 3

My fiancé said to me “one day that target card is going to decline. ” So I asked him what he meant that’s when we found out how baaaaad in debt we are in and that’s when it clicked me never having money in my account  thankfully now we are on a strict budget thanks to TBM  

Answer 4

Seeing my parents struggle with an unexpected house emergency. Nothing puts finances in to perspective like seeing your parents (who you think have it all together) struggling.  

Answer 5

Losely followed a few recommendation I saw on her IG story. I found 1k of overspending . I was not ready to give up my wicked ways immediately but I eventually came around. Started full budgeting in January.  

Answer 6

I kept seeing people talk about “cash envelopes” and it started with a girl I’ve been watching on YouTube for years. So then I fell into a YouTube rabbit hole and then Instagram rabbit hole and found TBM.  

Answer 7

Tired of living paycheck to paycheck and having no accountability as to where my money was going

Answer 8

Growing up poor  True though

Comments

@puffy right there with you!  

Answer 9

I really kicked budgeting into high gear after having my 2nd child and knowing we would have 2 in daycare

Answer 10

38 credits cards and over 50k in debt by myself

Answer 11

After tracking in oct n nov after finding tbm & seeing how much $$ i spent personally on amazon n frivolous things

Answer 12

Withdrawing from our retirement yet again to cover expenses we hadn’t planned for that we knew were coming due (property taxes, homeowners insurance, auto in Siena de, holiday, charge card balances). Year after year of coming up short finally scared me straight.  

Answer 13

Finally adding up my credit card debt. It was getting ridiculous

Answer 14

We sold our house and moved in with my in laws for a year to pay off debt and get a clean slate.  

Answer 15

Getting a car loan that had 25% interest. Seeing the total amount of interest I was paying each month on credit cards.  

Answer 16

Having to ask my fiance for money to buy groceries with

Answer 17

My wake up call is a pending divorce where I’ll be single after 35 yrs & solely responsible for my own finances after he managed everything & I had no input!  

Answer 18

My husband lost his job the same week we found out we had our second baby on the way. 8 months later and we’re still trying to make it work. Hopefully we figure it out before baby #2 arrives

Answer 19

My sister-in-law who is the same age as my husband died in September after months of battling cancer. It really hit home that hubby is the one with a nice retirement, but if I lost him, I'd be in the poor house. That was my wake-up call to change my spending habits! ALSO, I have a friend who is a minimalist. She constantly makes comments about how people have too much "stuff". One day, I was in my craft room and pouring through boxes and bags and shelves trying to find something and I realized I was drowning in craft supplies for crafts I haven't done in years and won't ever do again. I started clearing things out and was so embarrassed at all the money I had spent on all that stuff that was now just clutter. It was another wake-up call for me to think before I spend! (And, I DONATED everything as I decluttered. didn't even think about trying to sell things! )

Answer 20

I would be close to paying off CC debt and somehow rack up more CC debt. It was an endless cycle. I realized that unnecessary splurges delayed what’s truly important to me - traveling, fitness and holistic classes, therapeutic yoga certification, working part time!  

Answer 21

Afraid to retire & have no way of supporting myself

Answer 22

Taking yearly shopping trips to Chicago for our anniversary and having to dip into our ER/savings to pay for it (and other bad shopping habits). We had a 5yr goal to move and were spending away our new house fund. At that point we decided a budget was a must and we haven’t looked back!  

Answer 23

Learning I was pregnant and having barely a source of income

Answer 24

The moment when I hit $30K in credit card debt. I was so embarrassed that owed more than half of what I made in a year. I make too much money to be so broke all the time.  

Answer 25

Wanting to save up to build my very own house . Looking to go tiny and avoid paying off a mortgage for the rest of my life. Currently 19 looking to be building my own house in the next 5 years .  

Answer 26

Living paycheck to paycheck. Getting married this October and we want to be educated and smart where we put our money.  

Answer 27

I was in a raffle group & saw my PayPal history & realized I was losing $40-60 a week & realizing I could of been paying down my debts & if I didn’t stop it would of gotten worse. It was a slap in the face

Answer 28

I was about to lose my house  

Answer 29

One day I calculated over 100 dollars in overdraft fees in 1month. I was miserable. Stopped myself and took a hard look at my statement to find what I doing wrong.  

Answer 30

My divorce. Took it for granted with double incomes. Now single mom and I need to get myself sorted out. If an emergency happened I couldn't cover it. :(

Answer 31

My debit card got denied at Panera Bread. Public humiliation for the win. ‍♀️

Answer 32

When I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, , want to make sure husband, , children, , and grandkids are provided for!  

Answer 33

Almost losing my house

Answer 34

I was paying student loans, happened to look at a breakdown of the bill (perhaps for tax interest purposes) and saw that of our $200 monthly payment, half of it was going straight to interest and not on our principal. It felt like such a smack in the face. So frustrating that I didn’t learn earlier how to take care of our finances.  

Answer 35

To be honest it was the moment I had to dip into my secret stash of saving to pay a bill & help us not over draft. My hubby was thankful that I was secretly stashing money away. I almost cried because I wanted to save up for a family vacation or something fun

Answer 36

The 1st time was when I hit you limit with the landlord not fixing things. We had mold in the house, the spot where a tree branch came through our kitchen ceiling ended up getting mold as well due to him not fixing it until after the rainy weather (had to have bucket on th floor for almost 2 months whenever it rained). Got everything in order and finally got a house of our own. Stuff happened and had a lot of emotional spending. So got into debt again. Then a car accident (other person fault), a hospital stay where I had sepsis and spent a couple days in icu due to my intestines tearing, then a another hospital stay for the surgery to fix that, and the most recent surgery last month to fix and issue from the last surgery (all this since September 2017. Now I am ready to get the bill situation straightened out and keep it that way.  

Answer 37

We hit a rough patch back in ‘08 ish with the recession. We had two babies and I got laid off from my job and my husband wasn’t always working full time because there wasn’t always enough work. We got in deep. Took a few years and a lot of hard work, but we paid off most of our debt. Then we had our fourth kid a few years ago and our tiny house we bought too if the market was too small. We needed more space. We were given an awesome opportunity to build a house on some family land and we went for it. With that came a mortgage that almost doubled and moving into a new house, especially new construction that we had to finish up some things to get the house how we want it, we used our credit cards again. Nothing crazy at first. We could pay it off each month. But then I didn’t work for a few weeks and Christmas came and we got to a point where we couldn’t pay off our card. I looked and looked for budgeting advice and ran into mikos site and I was hooked. We had used our own system for years that was similar but needed tweaking for sure and mikos system had the tweaks we needed.  

Answer 38

I spent years without money. got a great job and lived beyond my means and got in over my head. In august With a job making almost 6 figures I couldn’t pay my bills. It was sick

Answer 39

Having pretty much the same balance on a credit card for over 5 years . seeing all the interest the Cc is making off it. I want to have a good savings for my family in case something happens.  

Answer 40

Got engaged and realized that we couldn’t afford a wedding. Then I started thinking past our wedding day.  

Answer 41

I paid off my car and wanted to make sure I was being a wise steward with the "extra" money I was going to have in my paycheck. I thought I was already budgeting until I discovered this process and my money stretched so much further than my car payment!  

Answer 42

I met my barre instructor turned workout out best friend @lombok! she was constantly talking about her budget and i knew for a long time i had a horrible spending issue that really needed changed. finally i just asked her for help. she introduced me to TBM, helped me create a budget by paycheck and now she's my accountability partner too! i strongly believe people come in to your life for a reason and i am so glad i finally took one of her workout classes 4 months ago and made a lifelong friend!  

Answer 43

I got a new job making really good money and we were still adding debt and not saving enough.  

Answer 44

My husband works in the oilfield which is feast or famine, which we both know and understand. So we want to be debt free and have savings so if the time does come that things slow down in the oilfield, we are prepared and not stressing about finances. We also know that we need to be good stewards of the money God is blessing us with.  

Comments

@listed same here - trying my best to plan for the down turn it’s hard . We live in a 5 wheel and still have the house back home

---

@lactobacillus70095 My Hot Mess travels to Texas from Arkansas. 15 days on 5 days at home. It's not an easy life but he loves it. Nice to meet a fellow oilfield wife!  

---

We are in the oil business as well and have experienced the feast and the famine. 2 daughters got married this past summer and we have debt we never had before. Climbing out while we are in feast mode!  

Answer 45

When my husband was put into a coma because of legionnaires pneumonia. My paycheck was all we had. We cut down almost $1000 a month since then.  

Answer 46

When I decided to move to another state.  

Answer 47

Just starting the cash envelope system. I never carried cash before. Being able to see what’s left right then physically in your hand. Also the first time contributing to my sinking funds felt like such an accomplishment and finally felt like I was truly adulting!  

Answer 48

Being in the negative to negative cycle with lots of overdraft fees! ‍♀️

Answer 49

Losing everything! Knew I had to learn about money or stay angry. Have learnt so much n not just about money. New philosophy n new behaviour, new diet. I take the view I can’t trust anyone n don’t. I needed boundaries around money. I do not lend money n I spend money not for now but for future n very cautiously. Feel happy to b in control of what I do. Of course I breakout sometime s, but I spend with the future in mind.  

Answer 50

We went from having no CC debt, to having almost $4K after our 4Runner broke down in the middle of a long road trip. We carried it for months and couldn’t seem to get it down; so I knew it was time to dial in if we wanted to reach financial goals instead of just tread water.  

Answer 51

When it got to the point where we had no option but to file for bankruptcy. I don’t regret filing I just wish it wouldn’t have gotten that far. We started out our married life 11 years ago debt free, but medical bills just snowballed into putting monthly bills on credit cards, then I tried to spend my way out of a major depression (which shocker shocker didn’t work). I just remember sitting in our bankruptcy attorneys office bawling and saying “absolutely never again”- the stress from all of that was destroying me, and I knew that we had to figure out a better way to make sure we didn’t just make the same mistakes again.  

Answer 52

I found out that I was pregnant. All my priorities changed in an instant.  

Answer 53

Living paycheck to paycheck and constantly using my overdraft!  

Answer 54

Having to pay for competitive gymnastics for both of my daughters, lord knows that sport is crazy expensive

Answer 55

Having my first child. Took me 4 months to find a job and was going to the food pantry once a month

Answer 56

Debt and unable to save because of overspending

Answer 57

Maxed out cards  

Answer 58

Seeing how much I was paying towards minimum payments on debt started my snowball. When I saw how much I made last year, and that I couldn’t fully account for all of it, I got serious about my budgeting.  

Answer 59

Living paycheck to paycheck

Answer 60

A $4k tax return being taken without notice for student loans right after my car committed suicide

Answer 61

Realize we make a decent income but spending a ton of it. Wanted to maximize our savings.  

Answer 62

My husband lost his Job. So something great has come from that awful.  

Answer 63

Realizing after moving for the 100th time, I’m so ready to OWN a home! I’m tired of boxes  

Answer 64

Divorce and starting again financially

Comments

@aggie same. still cleaning up the messes  

---

@whit9 it’s hard work isn’t it?!  

---

@aggie yup but so satisfying.  

Answer 65

Realizing that I want children or a child and I’m single and would be willing to adopt or do it on my own in some other way and can’t in my current situation. I’m 30. so I’m not getting younger and would love to have one child by 35

Answer 66

Not having a dime in my savings, and having three growing boys. feeling like I was pulling money out of my ass to get dinner on the table. (Sorry for the curse word. lol no other words )

Answer 67

Being on a fixed/low income and unemployed for 6 months and only getting check at end of month instead of biweekly.  

Answer 68

Marital separation. My husband always paid all of the bills but didn't save money well. Before we separated, we paid off all of our credit cards except one. The freedom this brings is amazing. I want to keep going on my own!  

Answer 69

Realizing that my car probably won’t last another year but having zero room in the budget for a new car payment because all the extra is going to credit card debt. Seriously focused now on paying it down faster and taking that weight off my shoulders.  

Answer 70

The crash of 2008-2009. Hit us Hard. Literally overnight became a paycheck budgeter.  

Answer 71

7 years ago my mom passed away, leaving an insurance policy my dad said she intended to give for the grandkids college fund. That's when I realized I didn't want to squander that gift by continuing our financial struggles. We had less than $100 in the bank, no savings. I discovered Dave Ramsey FPU classes starting up soon, and learned how to gain control of our credit card debt. 6mo later no more credit card debt. But still paying off student debt and mortgage. My goal is to knock both of them out of the park in 5 years.  

Answer 72

My partner made clear that his money will never be ours. So I educated myself, worked hard and build my own future. First results are coming in and I'm winning  

Comments

@aldine0 this is me, I always paid for everything and he kept his wage, I was always left with nothing spare and he was daddy cool as he paid for holidays and bought me a car. What my kids don't understand is that if he paid for half of the house keeping I could have bought my own car, paid for holidays and had some left over . After having baby number four I wanted to reduce my hours at work so told him he had to pay the mortgage which is still only a third of all our costs - he is doing it but complaining loads, says he feels like he is working for nothing haha that's called adulthood and parenting x

---

@sawhorse23 exactly! We have three daughters. I pay all their costs. Mr has his house and hobbies. I have children and bills. But girls are in my team and thanks to budgeting I can teach them how to be smart like me. BUT we could be so much stronger all together as a family. I'm very thankful for my money lessons and Tbm group.  

Answer 73

I told my ex husband I was leaving him and he emptied our bank account, took me off our credit cards, and left me with $1. 10 and told me to figure it out.  

Comments

@intensity The important part is you did. I left with 3. 00 to my name an a baby who needed diapers. And my baby is now 28 years old. I made it too.  

---

Girl we are 2 years long gone, I’m happily divorced with an amazing relationship with my daughter whom lives with me. I’m blessed with a job I adore and work friends who have endured it all as I started my job 2 weeks after this incident (did I mention I was a stay at home mom for years when he drained our accounts. I literally had no income and started from absolutely NOTHING) We may not be rich but we don’t need a single thing. Living happier and healthier then ever is the best revenge I can get on that loser who tried to break me.  

Answer 74

Adding up our eating out expenditure  

Answer 75

We’ve been on again off again for years but casually doing DR steps in between. But my husband pushed me into getting a new car last year and now we have two car loans so that jumped me into gear. Working hard to get the older loan paid off ASAP

Answer 76

Wondering every paycheck where did it go

Answer 77

My son is actually in college now. I’d like to help both of my children with expenses, if possible. but REALLY I realized Im not getting younger and need to retire at some point . I NEED to stop overspending MY future away.  

Answer 78

When my boyfriend of 6 years left me. I already had a savings account but didn't follow a budget yet. I've been able to keep my house on my own thanks to Miko.  

Answer 79

When I kept having to pay over draft fees.  

Answer 80

Last July! I was so frustrated with always stressing in when logging into my online banking app, It was gut wrenching one day there would be plenty of money the next day I’d pray when logging in I would see money in there. In July I printed out the long monthly statement and color coded things like bills, misc, eating out, groceries, and coffee. I was disappointed to see over 500 spent eating out between two of us (we have a three year old and a 1 year old so they aren’t the issue in this area lol) and close to 400 on coffee in one month and to top it off 1, 200 in groceries! That was, I remember it clear as day, my Moment I was done!  

Answer 81

When I found TB@aggie and started my first year in univeristy, didn't want to spend my money on things that aren't important

Answer 82

After doing the math and finding out how much money we were spending on CRAP!  

Answer 83

Realising I am paying £2500 a year in debt interest and what I could do with the money if I am debt free  

Answer 84

Adding up the total amount of interest that I am being charged each month for all of my credit cards and the fact that I could retire right now if I did not have any credit card debt.  

Answer 85

A job loss scare.  

Answer 86

Finally sitting back and thinking IF I was to leave this earth today what will my kids have ? Absolutely NOTHING . It’s scared me being a single mom of 2! Then I came across Miko’s & Anthony ONeal’s ig. Everything started making sense ! I wanted to take CONTROL of my money & stop giving it away. & I’ve started to do just that . My credits cards are just about gone ! & my car note left which I’m planning to pay off this yr (3 yrs early ) Once this is done I could start investing into my kids future & my retirement  

Answer 87

When I decided that I wanted to buy a house and realized I’d worked for almost a year at my full time job but had nothing really to show for it so how In the world could I buy a house?  

Answer 88

Jordan Page on YouTube suggested a “spending freeze” for just one week. It really showed me how much I would purchase that I didn’t need and it was like a detox from spending. I loved the feeling and started getting addicted to NOT spending. The other thing is “shelf cooking” and always doing inventory of your groceries before heading to the store. She does 25 dollar/week challenges where you get creative with items you already have and then just buy an ingredient or two that you need to make the full meal. So much less food is wasted!  

Comments

@profiteer THIS! I do wish We could do the Mac and cheese, ramen noodle thing. We’d never eat real food again. I’m so “addicted” to seeing how little we can get by with. Due to diabetes and obesity we’re stuck having to follow special diets, but with meal planning, freezer/shelf cooking, cash envelopes, and no eating out we’ve cut our crazy food budget in half. Haven’t let any veggies die in the fridge either. I’m so loving the challenge and I’m going to get that food budget down even more . it’s on

Answer 89

My husband and I are both spenders. I’m the nerd though. So I’ve handled all things financial since we got married. It’s all gone in one pot and I’ve divvied it out. Not to toot my own horn because we could’ve/should’ve been in way better financial shoes than we are, but we’ve never bounced a check and our FICO scores are both over 800. Our only retirement savings is the 401k though. Anyway, he had the nerve to come home from work one day and say something to the effect of “why don’t we have any investments? ” (because his friend does) of course I heard “you’ve been doing it all wrong! ” Best question he ever asked me (next to will you marry me). Gave me permission to go wide-open debt snowball & frugalicious. The spend free-for-all has seen its last hoorah. We should have our snowball finished around October this year. Can’t decide whether to go ahead and start hammering IRAs or fully fund the emergency fund. We’re 55 & 58. Hope we haven’t waited too late, but not going to let it stop the effort.  

Answer 90

My husbands inheritance ran out after 6 years of living fancy free and not paying attention to our spending. and then our oven caught fire and we had no extra money to spare I lost my mind, insisted he get back to work and found The Budget Mom on Instagram who saved me.  

Answer 91

When I could not afford groceries.  

Answer 92

Just being exhausted  with only paying bills. No extra money to do anything

Answer 93

Church gave away copies of Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey for free and I read it.  

Answer 94

When I saw how much we were paying in debt monthly versus how much income we brought in.  

Answer 95

One of the (many) times I paid the minimum on my debt and was charged more interest at the end of the month. That game is MADDENING!  

Answer 96

When our eating out cost us more than our mortgage

Answer 97

When I realized I work three jobs and have nothing to show for, no saving. then build my EF and fall off the wagon ‍♀️ now I am back to square one with 0 in EF and lot more debt!  

Answer 98

When we were denied a small home repair loan ($500) by our credit union of almost 20 years because we have too much debt vs. our income.  

Answer 99

I just did not want to worry about debt and whether or not We can provide for my daughter. My husband and I want to be able to give her things we did not have growing up. She is my WHY

Answer 100

House full to the brim with clutter  I’d rather have a clear house and money in my pocket  

Answer 101

We got the opportunity to move into a house so I had to see if it fit my budget and I realized how much money I was wasting. I was able to afford 1300 in rent vs 650 and be ok and when I was only paying $650 I felt like I never had money  

Answer 102

Job change(not by choice, was let go) for less pay. But now new job pays better than that job did and I have stuck to my budgeting. A lot of times God allows things to happen that seem worse but in the long run is better if we just keep the faith.